Key Stage 3 The great microwave oven debate - Rich Activity(TLCRA17)

Learners consider the most energy and cost efficient method of cooking food. They research an ‘energy audit’ to test the hypothesis that electrical kitchen items are the most energy demanding and therefore the most expensive items to run in the home. From this, learners predict and justify if the use of a microwave oven is more efficient than a conventional oven. Learners plan a strategy for carrying out suitable calculations as evidence, extracting and using relevant data. They communicate their numerical reasoning, including how and why they have used their chosen data and the calculation strategies developed. They review the outcomes in light of the calculations made, justifying their conclusions. Learners reflect on the initial problem of saving money by reviewing energy usage in the kitchen and make an informed decision about the extent that this may be possible and likely savings to be gained.
All Rich Activities are available to buy in English and Welsh.

Secondary, Teaching and Learning, Sciences, Mathematics / Numeracy, KS3, English / Literacy, Teaching staff, Cross-curricular Themes, Assessment, Behaviour for Learning, Subject Knowledge, Physical resource, Collaborative Learning, Meta-cognition and Self-regulation, There are approaches to support pupils working together, Tasks are designed carefully so that working together is effective and efficient, Provides approaches that encourage lower achieving pupils to talk and articulate their thinking in collaborative tasks , Provides teaching approaches which encourage learners to plan, monitor and evaluate their learning with careful implementation, Provides approaches to teach pupils explicit strategies to plan, to monitor and to evaluate their learning with and without support, Provides teaching approaches which encourage pupil engagement in planning and best approaches to tasks, Evaluation of process

Learning outcomes for participants/users and, where relevant, pupils or students

A range of engaging and exciting rich activities for use in the classroom to improve learners’ literacy and numeracy skills, as in the LNF. These activities will be posted to school on a memory stick. These can then be printed in-school when needed.

The activities also aim to develop learners’ problem solving, critical and creative thinking skills. Each rich activity has Teacher’s notes, to show how it links with the curriculum and the LNF, instructions as to how to prepare for and carry out the activity, and a grid demonstrating which elements/aspects of the LNF could be assessed. Each rich activity covers several teaching hours and is broken up into a number of tasks, to be used with pairs or groups of learners, with focus questions to elicit understanding.

Evidence underpinning this approach

Learners consider the most energy and cost efficient method of cooking food. They research an ‘energy audit’ to test the hypothesis that electrical kitchen items are the most energy demanding and therefore the most expensive items to run in the home. From this, learners predict and justify if the use of a microwave oven is more efficient than a conventional oven. Learners plan a strategy for carrying out suitable calculations as evidence, extracting and using relevant data. They communicate their numerical reasoning, including how and why they have used their chosen data and the calculation strategies developed. They review the outcomes in light of the calculations made, justifying their conclusions. Learners reflect on the initial problem of saving money by reviewing energy usage in the kitchen and make an informed decision about the extent that this may be possible and likely savings to be gained.

LNF links: literacy and numeracy

Curriculum links: science.

How users/participants can evaluate success

The rich activities in themselves can be used to assess learners' current position and develop next steps for improvement. In addition, baseline test outcomes on Literacy and/or Numeracy can be compared with evidenced outcomes from the rich activity.

Follow-up activities and support

Further rich activities are available to be used with learners from Foundation Phase to Key Stage 3. To view the full range of Rich Activities on offer visit www.thinklearnchallenge.com/pick-n-mix.html or contact [email protected] .